This week I’m turning things around a bit. Usually you ask the questions, but this time I’m going to do it. Or more accurately, I’m going to repeat a question that Washington Traffic Safety Commission asked: “What have you done to stop someone from driving drunk or high?” Folks responded, and their answers are worth sharing.
Maybe you’ve been in a situation where an impaired person intended to drive and you knew it was up to you to make sure they didn’t. In that moment you might have felt like you were out there on your own. I hope that after you’re done reading this you’ll know that you’re not. These stories (and actual research data) show that when you prevent impaired driving, you’re part of a team that includes a lot of us. How many? A survey of Washington drivers found that 80 percent of people in a situation to intervene have taken action to stop someone from driving impaired. Here are a few of their stories.
There’s the couple that would disconnect their mom’s car battery when she was drinking because they know she’d try to drive. They also knew she’d be mad about it, but as the person wrote, “at least she’s still alive and we can look back on those awful nights and laugh a little.”
There’s the woman who was hit by a drunk driver, and has made a commitment to be a designated driver or hold onto keys when friends are consuming.
There’s the man who worked the nighttime shift at a bowling alley and encountered a clearly drunk person (described as “smelled like he fell into a beer vat”) knocking on the door. The man held onto the impaired person’s keys and let him sleep in his car in the parking lot until morning when he came in for coffee and breakfast.
There’s the woman who has been doing the designated driver thing for so many years that it wasn’t even a thing when she started.
There’s the guy who called 911 when he saw a person stumbling toward their car and struggling to get in. The dispatcher had an officer on the way before the vehicle even started moving, and the driver was arrested for DUI two blocks later.
There’s the man who wrote, “Someone is waiting for you at home.” He then shared a video telling his personal story of how he was paralyzed after having a couple drinks and falling asleep at the wheel.
There was also someone who responded that if they see someone weaving on the road, they keep their distance because there isn’t anything else they can do. Keeping your distance is a wise strategy, but I hope that these stories dispel the notion that there’s nothing you can do.
Many of you could add to these examples. Intervention can look like a lot of things; being a designated driver, hanging on to someone’s keys, calling 911, telling your own story of how impaired driving impacted your life, or giving someone a safe place to sleep it off. If, like the guy from the bowling alley, you let someone sleep it off in their car, make sure that their car is safely off the roadway and you hold onto the keys (like he did).
Impaired drivers make up a tiny fraction of drivers on our roads, but impairment was a factor in 60 percent of all traffic fatalities in Washington last year. This holiday season, if you find yourself with someone who intends to drive impaired, the greatest gift you can give them is an alternative to driving.